Ag Notebook for Jan. 15

Related Media

Colorado cattlemen upset with sage grouse plan ... Colorado cattlemen say millions of dollars spent protecting the Gunnison sage grouse will be wasted if the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service goes ahead with plans to protect the chicken-like bird as an endangered species.

The association says farmers, ranchers and local governments worked hard to set up conservation easements and made other changes to avoid severe regulations.

The agency has proposed designating 1.7 million acres in southwest Colorado and southeast Utah as critical habitat for the bird known for elaborate courtship displays. The designation sometimes, but not always, means restrictions on human activities on that land.

— The Associated Press

Climate change hitting U.S. faster than predicted, panel says ... The effects of climate change are spreading through the United States faster than has been predicted, increasingly threatening infrastructure, water supplies, crops and shorelines, according to a review of climate science and its effects by a federal advisory committee.

The draft Third National Climate Assessment, issued every four years, delivers a bracing picture of environmental changes and natural disasters that mounting scientific evidence indicates is fostered by climate change: heavier rains in the Northeast, Midwest and Plains states that have overwhelmed storm drains and led to flooding and erosion; sea level rise that has battered coastal communities; drought that has turned much of the West into a tinderbox.

“Climate change, once considered an issue for a distant future, has moved firmly into the present,” the report says. “Summers are longer and hotter, and periods of extreme heat last longer than any living American has ever experienced. Winters are generally shorter and warmer.”

Written by 240 scientists, business leaders and other experts, the draft Climate Assessment arrives days after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued its annual State of the Climate Report, which noted that 2012 was the hottest year on record.

— Tribune Washington Bureau

SE COLO. plan hits rough water ... The Arkansas Basin Roundtable routinely passes grant requests with few ripples, but the Fountain Creek proposal last week hit more than the usual number of snags.

In the end, the plan was kicked back to its sponsors with instructions to obtain more matching funds.

The district sought more than $150,000 in state grants to restore natural curves and stabilize banks on the Frost Ranch.

The plan incorporated $30,000 in in-kind contributions from Colorado Springs Utilities, based on lessons learned at the nearby Clear Springs Ranch.

The Frost Ranch was chosen after 10 properties were looked at, partly because the landowners were willing to work with the district. The demonstration project could be useful in persuading other landowners to make improvements that are designed to reduce erosion and sedimentation.

The district has been looking at asking voters for a property tax, but otherwise will continue to patch together budgets until 2016, when it begins receiving $50 million that was promised by Colorado Springs Utilities after the Southern Delivery System goes online.

But the plan ran into criticism.

Some roundtable members questioned whether the improvements would hold up to the next flood, and others thought it more important to try to make improvements on Fountain Creek.